A Trip to the Library
by Echo Chambers
Summary: No, not love-love. I just like normal like her." The start of their relationship. It's a cute one-shot with Alice and Frank. Franks POV. A/F


_This is an old one-shot I made a year or two ago. Just felt like posting it once I ran through and fixed a bit of switching tense problems. If you see I've missed a bit, drop me a review. _

_It's my second romance BTW._

The halls were empty at the time. I should've be in Gryffindor tower - but it didn't matter to me. Madame Lilac was very nice, she'd let me hide out in the library again. Only yard from the library doors Miss Norris found me. I quickened my pace. Filtch knew better than to chase kids in the library. I'd heard that last time he had been attacked by a ruler and a handful of quills for making too much noise.

Once inside the silent room I made a beeline from my study spot in the back. But someone was already there. Alice looked up at me; "Hi!" She was always so cheerful. That's what I loved about her. No, not love-love, I just liked (normal like) her. She was really pretty too, but don't get that wrong! We were just friends. I wasn't her type any way; she'd dated the handsome Ravenclaw seeker, Raoul a few months previously.

I smiled as she patted the chair beside her. "Sit with me. What are you doing up so late?" she asked, brushing a lock of hair from her eyes as she moved books to clear me a spot. It was strange how she made even the simplest movement look graceful.

"I'm not tired. I want to work on that new Charms assignment, the theory one."

"Ah, getting an early start!" she laughed. The sound reminded me of the clinkling of that wind chime Mum had bought last year. "I have to admit I'm not as great a student as you are. I'm working on that Transfiguration paper about animargi." My mouth twitched up at the corner and I couldn't help but smile at how adorable she was. The three feet essay was due first thing in the morning!

"If you'd like I can help you," I offered. "I've finished mine already.

"That'd be great! Thank you so much! I just don't understand the point of tags. I mean, even if I know McGonagal has spectacle markings I'm still going ot have a really hard time picking her out from all the other cats with spectacle markings!"

Alice sighed and begun searching through her surrounding barricade of books. "It says somewhere in here that -" her hand brushed mine as she reached across me for a book. For a split second she froze, before continuing, a bit redder in the face, in her pursuit of the needed book. "- that an animagus, in animal form, could, and often will perform small bits of magic. If that's so, the Ministry can trace them by magic right? So why bother with the records?"

"Well," I begun, handing her the book she really needed. "It's because the animagus, if trying to hide, **wouldn't** do magic. So, in an attempt to keep as much of an eye on the animagi as the rest of the world, the Ministry keeps tabs on them."

Alice bit her lip, frowning as she flipped through the animagus section of the large tomb. Suddenly her finger paused and backtracked a paragraph. "Oh!" she exclaimed. With a grin she hugged me and thanked me profusely. Dipping her quill in ink she crossed out several before scribbling madly as if she, in a single second, could loose her thoughts and all inspiration she had touched upon.

For a while I allowed myself to watch her write. taking in the childish handwriting, the hunched back and the way that, every paragraph or two she would pause, set down her quill and massage her hand before turning back to the paper with renewed enthusiasm. Suddenly I realized that I was staring. Turning to my book back I pulled out some parchment and got to work on the Charms essay I'd originally come to work on.

When Alice begun to put away her things and rolled up her three and a half foot essay I too begun to pack. She stood and I said, "If you wait a moment I'd like to walk back with you." She smiled and when I offered her my arm she giggled and accepted it. A giddy feeling slid up and down my spine as Alice touched me. Perhaps she felt it too because we were both blushing and grinning as we left the library. Suddenly she punched me lightly on the shoulder. "Tag, you're it!" she laughed before running off down the hallway. Smiling like mad I chased after her.

Filtch had to have been dead. Or perhaps he was on another planet. Either way anyone within a hundred yards could probably have heard our laughter, yet no one came to scold us. We quickly tired of the running, neither of us were particularly athletic, and grinning wildly we slowed to a walk. Chatter easily resumed and soon I was comfortably debating the advantages and disadvantages the Bulgarian arours must have from being taught both Defense Against the Dark Arts and the Dark Arts themselves.

I wondered why I never noticed how small the castle was. I was sure we'd been walking for less than five minutes and already Gryffindor tower was only a staircase away. Alice was laughing and I could see she wanted this walk to continue as much as I did. We stopped in front of a window to pass time. Looking out over the grounds I sighed. It was a strange and beautiful place, Hogwarts. I felt so at home there. The grounds, the castle corridors, it was all lovely, but I couldn't help but think, as I stood beside Alice, that it was because of the _people_ that it was home.

Smiling I gazed at Alice as she told me how being taught the Dark Arts would actually be a weakness because it would make the lines between good and dark so much harder to see. "It's already hard enough the way that arour, Leroy White, used a killing curse during a fight against Widdershankson in 1923." It is a good argument, but my mind had flown so far from our conversation that it barely registered as more than a pretty sound.

The moon light glimmered in Alice's hair and almost instinctively I reached out and run my fingers through it. She turned to look at me, abruptly stopping mid-sentence. I pulled my hand away, waiting for her to rebuke me. A small smile graced her lips though and a flirtatious glitter shone in her eyes.

"Why'd you stop?" Suddenly I couldn't help it. I pulled her close and smiled into her ear. The bubbly feeling that's erupted inside of me had taken me hostage and stripped my vocabulary of words. She understood though, some how. When I let go she took my hand and walked with me to the common room. At the dividing staircase she turned to me.

"There's a Hogsmede trip on Saturday. We can meet at breakfast in the Great Hall." I smiled and bid her goodnight. With a yawn I headed towards bed. My pillow sounded pretty good right then. After all, as my parents always said on Holidays, "Tomorrow will come quicker if you go to bed now". And I couldn't wait for Saturday to come around.


End file.
